Izale: We owed fans a performance

23 April 2014

mkdons.com

Striker Izale McLeod felt the players owed the home supporters a performance on Easter Monday.

.mkstadium, putting an end to both a five-match losing run at hold second-placed Brentford to a drawThe Dons, having been beaten by Port Vale just two days previous, showed tremendous character to fight-back from two-nil down and

The two goals by McLeod and, first, Stephen Gleeson, were also the first two scored by Karl Robinson’s men at home since 15th February, when Ben Reeves netted an injury-time winner against Oldham Athletic.

“It was pleasing, for the home fans, to get a couple of goals today,” McLeod told MK Dons Player after the game. “It was a relief because the longer the run went on the more you started to think ‘when’s it going to come?’

“We’re just pleased that we could give the home fans something to shout about. The last two performances hadn’t been up to scratch so we felt we owed our home fans a performance.

“I thought we played quite well and the lads worked really hard. To go two-nil down to a team that’s already promoted it’s always a tough task but the lads showed character and we’re all really pleased.”

Monday’s clash also saw McLeod’s fellow-forward Giorgio Rasulo make his first career start in the ‘number 10’ role and 18-year-old Brendan Galloway trusted to play at left-back.

“We’re blessed at this club with a load of youngsters coming through,” McLeod added. “Brendan was strong as per usual and Giorgio is such a good player, I train with him every day, he’s got real good touches and you could see that out there.

“We’ve got a few young boys in the team but we’ve still got a couple of old heads as well, Alan Smith, Dean Lewington and myself. Everybody out there, including the subs that came on, worked really hard and showed a lot of character.”